Telecommunications is a fast-evolving business moving at a frenetic pace with an expected global revenue of 1.2 trillion Euros by 2019. It has become important for CSPs to aim for sustainable growth in the wake of market saturation and competition from Over-the-top (OTT) players. Not only does the revenue from existing customers have to be increased but their retention also needs to be addressed. They need to manage revenue growth by maximizing value from existing customers rather than subscriber acquisition. Gartner reports that acquiring a new customer would cost a CSP five times more than retaining an existing customer.To derive increased value from customers, it is also important to understand customers’ requirements, communicate accordingly and deliver increased value. This intensified customer centricity is essential to success. This is where Contextual Marketing comes into the picture. For telcos, Contextual Marketing allows them to become customer centric, bringing together aspects of customer lifecycle, customer experience, and customer value. It helps them understand the customer better and, thus, broaden the relationship with the customer. Precision marketing is poised to have a deep impact in helping telcos become highly customer-centric.
Evolution of Contextual Marketing
Customer centricity calls for a shift from the earlier strategy of mass marketing based on above-the-line campaigns and classical segmentation methods, such as those based on revenue, minutes of use, and more. With the arrival of data warehouses and business intelligence tools, segmentation based on the subscribers’ behavior and preferences became a possibility. However, even with the most sophisticated of data warehouses or BI tools, it was observed that the acceptance rate of campaigns was quite low. This led to the understanding that marketing has to be relevant, paving the way for Precision Marketing.
With the idea of Contextual Marketing, CSPs transformed their business model to adapt to their customers requirement. The model is adjusted to the needs and expectations of each individual customer, monitored regularly and takes advantage of specific channels where the customers respond. Operators now listen to every subscriber on every channel and possess data-driven insights to deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time. With precise information on the needs and behavior of each customer, the relevance of these messages become fairly high.
Advantages
A customer-centricity platform can gather all information related to the transactions and behavior of the customers in a central location and profile the customers from the received data and also derive insights. With these systems, telcos can gain increasing revenues through a three-pronged approach that involves up-selling, cross-selling and increasing the share of wallet.
Telcos can thus leverage the unique data that it has on each customer and apply the techniques of Contextual Marketing and specifically make the right offer to the right customer at the right time through the right channel. This would enable telcos to transform themselves rather than get commoditized.
